Development of the Hosted Contact Center Market and the True Enterprise Offering

Transcription

1 Development of the Hosted Contact Center Market and the True Enterprise Offering

2 What Makes an Enterprise Hosted Solution? Full-featured Contact Center Platform Scalability & Migration Strategies Reliable Service & Business Continuity World-Class Partner & Hosting Facility 1 Noble Systems Corporation

3 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Technology Backgrounder 6 Value Proposition for a True Enterprise Solution 8 About Noble Systems & Noble Enterprise Hosted 12 2 Noble Systems Corporation

4 I Introduction 3 Noble Systems Corporation

5 Introduction For years, analyst firm Frost & Sullivan defined the hosted contact center as a network-based service in which a service provider owns and operates a contact center technology platform. 1 Yet for much of that time, users and industrywatchers understood that a vital piece of information was missing from that description: any comment on the depth, sophistication and functionality of the platform itself. Since its inception more than 15 years ago, hosted contact center services were primarily tailored for Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMBs), offering scaleddown features in exchange for convenience and low cost-of-entry. Today, as the early adoption phase of the hosted contact center solution fades into the past, a new breed of hosted offerings have redefined the value proposition and changed the game. With the introduction of Noble Enterprise Hosted, Noble Systems offers a true alternative to traditional premise-based systems not just a stripped-down version of standard features. Armed with the full functionality of Noble Systems award-winning Noble Enterprise solution, Enterprise Hosted is a unified platform with an integrated management console for a single-point of entry to advanced features and tools. James K. Noble, Jr. President & CEO Noble Systems 1 THE HOSTED MODEL: Why It s Revolutionizing the Contact Center Industry, Frost & Sullivan, 3. 4 Noble Systems Corporation

6 Technology Backgrounder 5 Noble Systems Corporation

7 Technology Backgrounder Hosted contact center solutions have been on the market (in some form) for more than 15 years 2. The earliest offerings were based on rudimentary automatic call distribution (ACD) functionality that gave companies basic call queuing and routing capabilities. Small shops looking to avoid IT staffing and avoid the overhead of a premise-based platform opted for such systems, understanding that they would receive sub-standard (but serviceable) functionality. A hallmark challenge for early adopters was the tremendous problem that came with migration to a premise-based system as businesses grew or services expanded. Costly and fraught with delay, migration horror stories further defined hosted offerings as stop-gap solutions designed only for small firms. Over the years, key differentiators between premise-based offerings and hosted solutions emerged: up-front investment, total-cost-of ownership, architecture and scale. Growing SMBs faced difficult choices through the early 2000 s, seeking to control overhead while enjoying the benefits of technological advancement more easily delivered through a PBX or premise-based architecture. By 2005, innovation in hosted offerings had progressed to a point of truly valuable differentiation and the marketplace saw a marked increase in adoption. New advantages to hosted services became clear: disaster recovery, integration of at-home or remote agents, future-proofing through automatic upgrades, and more. Despite these advantages, the function and control portfolio remained well-behind available premise-based options. The large enterprise usage of the hosted contact center...is for the most part still in its infancy. Gartner, 2008 Now, business interest and vendor innovation have combined to generate significant momentum toward hosted services. Frost & Sullivan contends that the North American hosted contact center market earned revenues of over $453.7 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1.2 billion in However, some significant concerns remain the biggest barriers to the ultimate success of hosted contact center solutions. Limited functionality, long-term viability, difficulty of migration to a premise-based solution and total cost of ownership remain active points of differentiation within the marketplace. 2 Hosted Contact Centers are Ready for Prime Time, DMG Consulting, May 8, 2005, 1. 3 North American Hosted Contact Center Markets, Frost & Sullivan, Noble Systems Corporation

8 Value Proposition for a True Enterprise Solution 7 Noble Systems Corporation

9 Value Proposition for a True Enterprise Solution An offering that addresses the following key concerns while delivering on support and innovation promises will result in a solid value proposition to compete in the modern global marketplace. Feature Functionality Business Continuity Scalability Hosted-to-Premise Migration Feature Functionality According to industry analysis at Frost & Sullivan, Gartner and others, a world-class hosted provider must offer a unified agent desktop that allows agents to quickly and easily navigate billing systems, knowledge bases, multiple products and interfaces. Moreover, that same system must utilize fast, responsive tools for management to set up campaigns, determine pacing, monitor agents and maximize overall efficiency. Finally, the platform must offer robust data capturing and reporting features that track activities in real-time and measure results. Noble Enterprise Hosted includes the complete functionality of its successful premise-based offering: outbound dialing, inbound ACD, blending, skills-based routing, IVR, call recording, agent and system monitoring, customizable agent workflows, CRM/collection software integration, workforce management, legislative compliance, results reporting, and more. In short, it s a complete contact center solution that is a far cry from the bare-bones products commonplace on the market just a short time ago. Business Continuity In a recent survey of contact center managers commissioned by Noble Systems, more than 20 percent of the participants indicated that they did not know what would happen to their customer data in the event of a catastrophe that compromised their facility. Some even responded with certainty that it would be lost forever. For many SMB organizations, data loss and customer privacy are day-to-day concerns that must be addressed thoroughly and carefully. A hosted solution with the right vendor can meet business continuity needs through failsafe systems that ensure the safety and security of all information. Noble Enterprise Hosted features a firewalled infrastructure with change control procedures, regular maintenance, internal security training, online backups for all equipment, and the latest in encryption technology in a SAS-70 and PCI (payment card industry) Certified environment, to protect your data. 8 Noble Systems Corporation

10 Value Proposition for a True Enterprise Solution Scalability From the days of their first availability, a primary advantage to hosted solutions was the flexibility that allowed users to scale operations to meet changing needs. That need is no less important today and in many cases, more so. As the global contact center industry becomes more fragmented and locationagnostic, businesses are experiencing diverging workflows and require a flexible solution. Noble Enterprise Hosted makes it easy to add or remove agents based on business requirements. Wherever employees are located on-site, at a remote office, or working from home Noble connects them all with IP-based networks. Hosted-to-Premise Migration Long the dreaded dead-end for customers of hosted-only providers, the hosted-to-premise migration is a key potential transition in the life of a contact center operation even if there is no perceived need for such a transition at the present time. A variety of needs and variables may arise to make such a change advantageous, but many companies realize this only to discover that it will be cost-prohibitive, disruptive to customer care, lengthy, or all of the above. Noble Systems unique hosted system design allows clients to easily migrate their hosted solution to a premise-based platform should their business and financial strategies change. They can quickly transition to an in-house environment with very little downtime and no retraining requirements. Equipment can be installed on-site and the system can be configured while the client continues using the hosted services, so that there is no loss of productivity. The recession has had a positive impact on growth in this sector, causing some businesses to shift from premises-based systems to hosted services, responding to limitations in their capital expenditure budgets. Frost & Sullivan, Noble Systems Corporation

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12 About Noble Systems & Noble Enterprise Hosted 11 Noble Systems Corporation

13 About Noble Systems & Noble Enterprise Hosted About Noble Systems Corporation Noble Systems Corporation is a global leader in unified contact center technology solutions, providing innovative products since Every day, millions of customer contacts are made by agents at 4,000+ client installations worldwide using the award-winning Noble premise-based and hosted platforms for inbound/outbound/blended communications. The scalable, integrated Noble Solution includes advanced ACD and predictive dialing; unified contact processing; and integrated IVR, recording, messaging, quality/monitoring systems, scripting and real-time reporting and management tools. Based in Atlanta, GA, Noble Systems was the first vendor to offer an open, scalable, fully-distributed platform. For more information, contact Lee Allum at NOBLE8 or visit noblesys.com. About Noble Enterprise Hosted Noble Enterprise Hosted offers an alternative to traditional premise-based systems, delivering a complete contact center technology solution with all of the advantages of a cloud-based CaaS (communications as a service) infrastructure. Noble s unique offer is the only true enterprise solution in the market, giving you the full functionality of our proven premise-based Noble Enterprise platform in a hosted environment. Noble s hosted technologies can help you improve the management of your customer contacts and allow you to respond more quickly to new opportunities, in a platform that requires no initial capital expenditure and eliminates hardware overhead expenses. 12 Noble Systems Corporation

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15 Get to Know Noble Systems Are you ready to benefit from the advantages of an Enterprise-class Hosted contact center solution? Contact us for your FREE Business Assessment and let Noble Systems help you grow your business! The technologies and methods contained in this document may not be applicable for all situations. For more information, please contact Noble Systems directly. To learn more about integrated collection center technology solutions from Noble Systems, including successful client applications of the Noble Solution, visit our website at or call us at Copyright 2011 Noble Systems Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from Noble Systems Corporation. Noble Systems, Noble Suite, Composer and the n logo are registered trademarks of Noble Systems Corporation. All others are property of their respective owners. While every precaution has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this document, Noble Systems Corporation assumes no responsibility for inadvertent errors or omissions. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Noble is a continually evolving product suite. The information listed above is believed to be accurate at the time of printing. Please contact Noble Systems to learn more about the latest features. 14 Noble Systems Corporation

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